Experimental Study on Arrangements of Setting Points of an Actuator and Sensor for the Vibration Control of Flexible Structures

This paper proposes an experimental study on the arrangements between the setting points of an actuator and sensor for the vibration control of a flexible structure, when a vibration controller is mounted at an arbitrary position on the structure. The important vibration mode of the structure to be controlled is its first mode, because it is excited most sensitively by strong winds. It is therefore necessary to make a reduced-order model represented by a one-degree-of-freedom system at an arbitrary location, in consideration of preventing spillover instability. In this paper, non-observability is used for making the reduced-order model, and the LQ control theory is used for controller design. For controlling vibration, a reduced-order model is constructed at the setting point of a hybrid dynamic absorber, and a displacement sensor is set at the vibration node of the second vibration mode. Then, the setting point of the sensor is changed to compare control effects by means of this model. It is demonstrated experimentally that a hybrid dynamic absorber, designed by this method, is capable of controlling vibration well without causing spillover instability. In addition, it is considered that the setting point of the sensor influences the robustness of the control system.